Lauren Norman

Lauren Norman is an archaeologist who reads the past through animal bones. As an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology, she studies how small-scale societies, particularly in the Arctic, adapted to environmental and social upheaval over centuries, pairing traditional zooarchaeology with ancient DNA to reconstruct relationships between people, animals, and landscape. Much of her fieldwork centers on northern Yukon, Canada, conducted in close partnership with Vuntut Gwitchin communities, reflecting her commitment to research that includes and serves the people whose history is being studied. She earned her doctorate from the University of Toronto and welcomes students curious about fieldwork, lab science, or community-engaged research design.